College of Life Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710119, Shaanxi Province, China.
Ecotoxicology. 2022 Aug;31(6):1009-1022. doi: 10.1007/s10646-022-02563-1. Epub 2022 Jul 6.
Carmoisine belongs to a water-soluble synthetic dye and is often used as a food additive. Previous research has shown that carmoisine is toxic to rats and zebrafish, but there have been few reports on the effect of carmoisine on soil-dwelling social insects. The present study evaluated carmoisine toxicity in Polyrhachis vicina Roger. We found that the effects of different concentrations of carmoisine on the mortality of workers were dose-dependent. The 10% lethal dose (LD), 50% lethal dose (LD) and 90% lethal dose (LD) of carmoisine to workers at 96 h was calculated to be 0.504, 5.491 and 10.478 g/L, respectivily. LD of workers were selected to treat the fourth instar larvae, pupae and adults for 10 days. The results showed that the survival rate of all ants, except for females, was significantly reduced, especially larvae and workers. The body weight of larvae, pupae and males decreased significantly, while weight gain was observed in the females and workers. The appearance of larvae, pupae and workers changed after carmoisine treatment, such as body darkening and epidermis shrinking of larvae and pupae, as well as body segment expansion of workers. Furthermore, carmoisine altered the expression of the estrogen-related receptor, tailless and homothorax of P. vicina (Pv-ERR, Pv-tll and Pv-hth) to varying degrees in larvae and adults. We believe that variations in body weight can lead to a decrease in survival rate and appearance changes in the ants, which may be related to abnormal gene expressions caused by carmoisine treatment. Therefore, we confirm that carmoisine has negative effects on the growth and development of P. vicina.
胭脂红属于一种水溶性合成染料，常被用作食品添加剂。先前的研究表明，胭脂红对大鼠和斑马鱼具有毒性，但关于胭脂红对土壤栖息的社会性昆虫的影响的报道较少。本研究评估了胭脂红对拟环纹豹蛛（Polyrhachis vicina Roger）的毒性。我们发现，不同浓度的胭脂红对工蜂死亡率的影响具有剂量依赖性。胭脂红对工蜂在 96 小时的 10%致死剂量（LD）、50%致死剂量（LD）和 90%致死剂量（LD）分别为 0.504、5.491 和 10.478g/L。选择 LD 对第四龄幼虫、蛹和成虫进行 10 天处理。结果表明，除了雌蜂外，所有蚂蚁的存活率均显著降低，尤其是幼虫和工蜂。幼虫、蛹和雄蜂的体重明显下降，而雌蜂和工蜂的体重增加。胭脂红处理后，幼虫、蛹和工蜂的外观发生变化，如幼虫和蛹的身体变暗和表皮收缩，以及工蜂的身体节段扩张。此外，胭脂红在幼虫和成虫中不同程度地改变了拟环纹豹蛛的雌激素相关受体、无尾和同源胸（Pv-ERR、Pv-tll 和 Pv-hth）的表达。我们认为体重的变化可能导致蚂蚁的存活率降低和外观变化，这可能与胭脂红处理引起的异常基因表达有关。因此，我们证实胭脂红对拟环纹豹蛛的生长和发育有负面影响。
